Ride Reports

willy b

MonkeyMonster wrote:

L2P all done in reasonable time too. Cracking weather and legs feel sore (plus bum of course) but otherwise all good. What to do next is the question...

Likewise! How many days (hours?) did you do it over?

Anybody know the record, excluding the ferry?

Kieran_Burns

Went out for a spin, ended up doing just over 100Km. Ran out of water with 10 miles to go (my plan to drop in at my Mums with 20 miles to go kind of back-fired as she was out. She's never out, what was she thinking of???)

One really bizarre moment going down a wide, straight piece of country road and there's a car behind me. Staying behind me. For a very, very long time. A couple of cars went past the one behind me they got so frustrated waiting. I even sat up and looked over my shoulder straight at the car and the driver STILL didn't go past. There was a wide entrance to a disused power station which I was about to pull into as there was a huge queue of traffic behind this lady driving when SHE pulled in. Really odd.

Anyway - good day out, and I HAVE got to get out on the road for like 7am so I can avoid this heat and humidity.

I was sweating so much there was this zone of increased heat and humidity all around me and it was causing its own micro-climate. I swear I heard thunder.

ad_snow

I did round the Isle of Wight today with 4 friends, including getting to and from the ferry it was just over 80 miles (IOW bit was 68ish) Was much hillier than I'd thought and quiet tough in places, made much easier by hanging around waiting for 2 members of the group to walk up a few of the hills... 4600ft of climbing in the end which is the most I've done by loads (Lincoln is flat) and the most time I've ever spent in the small chain ring. Really enjoyed it though, made for a great day out and would recommend to anyone Will definitely go back and do it again next year. Strava link: http://app.strava.com/activities/70214429

jimmypippa

Kieran,

Maybe she was thinking about a couple of seals.

We remember many of your posts.

Kieran_Burns

jimmypippa wrote:

Kieran,

Maybe she was thinking about a couple of seals.

We remember many of your posts.

If I could go back and remove that post....

itboffin

I do hope its not the grim this weekend as I'm planning a raid over the border to tackle the TOB route again, 127 miles +11,000 ft of climbing grrrrr

itboffin

itboffin wrote:

I do hope its not the grim this weekend as I'm planning a raid over the border to tackle the TOB route again, 127 miles +11,000 ft of climbing grrrrr

Like this http://connect.garmin.com/course/4342415

:twisted:

itboffin

Well that didnt happen as I have a million things to do before going on holiday next week but anyway i'm just back from a little pootle, was a shame about the wind otherwise a nice day.

Had a very interesting "moment" coming to a junction I pulled on the brakes and the rear wheel just slipped away almost completely swapped ends.

Dont think i'm going to be buying Vittora open corsa tyres again

rjsterry

itboffin wrote:

Well that didnt happen as I have a million things to do before going on holiday next week but anyway i'm just back from a little pootle, was a shame about the wind otherwise a nice day.

Had a very interesting "moment" coming to a junction I pulled on the brakes and the rear wheel just slipped away almost completely swapped ends.

Dont think i'm going to be buying Vittora open corsa tyres again

More likely some oil on the road, no?

itboffin

rjsterry wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Well that didnt happen as I have a million things to do before going on holiday next week but anyway i'm just back from a little pootle, was a shame about the wind otherwise a nice day.

Had a very interesting "moment" coming to a junction I pulled on the brakes and the rear wheel just slipped away almost completely swapped ends.

Dont think i'm going to be buying Vittora open corsa tyres again

More likely some oil on the road, no?

Nope bone dry, thankfully my several winters riding CX I fully controlled the bike to a safe stop just as three cars whizzed past.

So I tested the braking and sure enough, pull both brakes with even force and the back slides forward, I dropped about 10 psi from both which improved quite noticeably but I really dont fancy riding around Wiltshire on 90 psi.

Crock-O-shite

itboffin

Oh and it would seem the front now has the worlds slowest puncture

in the bin these go :evil:

rjsterry

Just got round to posting this after a week near Seaton in Devon, so can now write up my first proper non-commuting ride in months. I've visited the area lots of times, and have always wanted to get the bike down there but never had the chance until last weekend. Mrs RJS and the littl'uns had already driven down a week earlier, so on the Sunday morning, I set off. I'd already worked out that riding the whole way was a bit beyond a comfortable one day ride at 150+ miles, so had booked a train ticket from Woking to Salisbury to break it in to a 22 mile warm-up and a 74 mile main event.

A steady run through Sutton, Cheam and Nonesuch Park gave way to meandering through various paths between Ewell and Epsom: *lots* of stops to consult the map. Eventually I got out onto the road to Oxshott, where I again fell foul of Googlemaps shaky cycle route planning: it sent me down a track that supposedly ran from the end of Oxshott station carpark, cutting off a chunk of the winding route to Cobham. Said path does not exist as far as I can tell. Having rerouted, I did get to ride down the very pleasant Sandy Lane, weaving between the pines, and picking up a group of Serpentine riders.

By this time I'd lost I'd realised that I was running short of time, so it was then pretty much a sprint through Cobham, Byfleet and down Old Woking Road to the station, missing the train by about a minute.

After lunch and a train ride I set off from Salisbury station, riding alongside the Avon to Wilton before turning off onto the A30, which I would follow all the way to Crewkerne. The sun was out (more out than I realised - must remember sun screen next time), the roads were fairly quiet and the Wiltshire scenery rolled by, dipping down to a small village every few miles, before a few sharp bends and climbing back up to the chalk downs. There are four main towns on the route, which I had mistakenly remembered as being roughly evenly spaced. They are not: Shaftesbury seemed to take forever to arrive, and when it did, I was relieved to find a bakery still open, which provided the first cake stop.

Leaving Shaftesbury, all that height gain from Salisbury is wiped out almost immediately with a steep descent, before returning to the pattern of drop into village, a few turns, then back up onto the hills.


Another longish stretch to Sherborne, then a detour from the A30 to avoid some dual carriageway. Most of the A30 so far has been single carriageway with double white lines, and traffic had been really well behaved, but it was still nice to get on to a much quieter road. Near Bradford Abbas, the road forks and I turned onto Underdown Hollow, which quickly lives up to its name as it dives steeply between ochre-coloured cliffs under trees so dense that traffic coming the other way has its lights on. Back onto the A30, and I'm in Yeovil: meh.

A long climb up towards West Coker, with another cake stop at the top, then on towards Crewkerne where I turned off the A30 on the Lyme Regis road. Although the scenery is beautiful all along this route, it really steps up a notch after Crewkerne. As the hills get steeper and higher the views get longer and somewhere near Lambert's Castle, I get my first glimpse of the sea.


Having rolled up and down - more up than down - the road finally flattened out for a couple of miles as it follows the ridge to the Axe valley. A quick jump onto the A35, then off onto the barely surfaced lane Woodbury Lane. Thankfully, it was all down hill. Onto the A358 and it really started to fell like I was almost there. By this time it was well past six in the evening, and the sun had swung round to give everything a warm glow. Past a field of neatly aligned cows, and over the tram line, and then there was one last sting in the tail, the campsite I was heading to was on top of Colyton Hill, starting from not much above sea level.

Here's the main part of the route; with the run to Woking, 95 miles 3000ft of climbing and four counties for the day.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/270678309

tl;dr

Not even as long as Greg's IMC bike leg, but I'm pleased with it. I think I got to enjoy the scenery a lot more and the legs were fine the next day.

rolf_f

Did my longest ride ever on Sunday - Leeds to Filey and back. 187 miles; 300km. Surprisingly over 6000 feet of climbing too despite me trying to keep the climbing to a minimum. If you do ever do a ride like this, do make sure you ban anyone from taking the train to your turning point. You then end up stuck with being towed along by someone with fresh legs. This sounds OK but by the time you have got to 150 miles with 30 still to go, it does start getting a bit stressful!

itboffin

Just a short 65 miles for me today which started off well avg 17.5 mph but then I hit the former roads of Hampshire now very much downgraded to farm trails, shame on HCC, anyway after the best part of two weeks without riding due to an injury I really didnt fair very well, avg 16 mph over 65 miles and almost bonked at the 54 mile mark, oh how quickly peak form just falls away

anyway i made it home via the pub for a healthy dose of sticky ribs and pulled ports. I need 60 miles to meet my weekly minimum mileage but this month has been very poor.

Also at my forced food stop I found a soft rear tyre, not a problem seems as i was already at the pub so ordered another pint, whipped off the tyre and found my tube wasnt punctured it had just torn at the seam by about 1.5" bizarre, i've never seen that before.

veronese68

Did the London to Brighton off road on Saturday. 75 miles, mainly off road with a couple of nasty climbs. Long day and quite hard, but fun. Although I didn't think so at a few points on the ride. The biggest problem was too many people on what are often quite narrow tracks. As soon as you got to a tricky section it all backed up as people stopped. I had a stupid clipless moment at one point when somebody stopped suddenly in front of me at a very strange point. Fortunately I had a very soft landing, unfortunately it was a load of nettles I fell into.
Five of us set off at the same time and I'd said I wasn't going to spend too long waiting for the others. I rode most of the first half with 2 of my mates, then spent too long waiting for them where we stopped at Cranleigh. As a result of waiting too long I ate too much and then had stomach cramp for the second half of the ride. I just rode through it as best I could, although uncomfortable at times. There were a few points along the Downs Link when I managed to pick up drafting fairies. I'm not sure how much of a tow you get rumbling along off road below 20mph. Managed a Strava top 10 at one point along there. I made it up the really steep climb onto the top of the South Downs which I was really pleased with. Steep rocky climb made harder by having to pick my way around all the people pushing their bikes up. Exciting descent down into Shoreham followed by a gentle roll along the seafront.
I then had a four hour wait for the last of our group before driving everybody home again.
Got home just after 10 utterly knackered. I'm now thinking of doing it on the cross bike next year to do it even faster.
Annoyingly Strava didn't pick up the 45mile segment from Shere to Brighton for me. Also who is Dar Merry on Strava? He did the ride and is in the SCR group on Strava.
Bit tired today.

mattsaw

rjsterry wrote:

Just got round to posting this after a week near Seaton in Devon, so can now write up my first proper non-commuting ride in months. I've visited the area lots of times, and have always wanted to get the bike down there but never had the chance until last weekend. Mrs RJS and the littl'uns had already driven down a week earlier, so on the Sunday morning, I set off. I'd already worked out that riding the whole way was a bit beyond a comfortable one day ride at 150+ miles, so had booked a train ticket from Woking to Salisbury to break it in to a 22 mile warm-up and a 74 mile main event.

A steady run through Sutton, Cheam and Nonesuch Park gave way to meandering through various paths between Ewell and Epsom: *lots* of stops to consult the map. Eventually I got out onto the road to Oxshott, where I again fell foul of Googlemaps shaky cycle route planning: it sent me down a track that supposedly ran from the end of Oxshott station carpark, cutting off a chunk of the winding route to Cobham. Said path does not exist as far as I can tell. Having rerouted, I did get to ride down the very pleasant Sandy Lane, weaving between the pines, and picking up a group of Serpentine riders.

By this time I'd lost I'd realised that I was running short of time, so it was then pretty much a sprint through Cobham, Byfleet and down Old Woking Road to the station, missing the train by about a minute.

After lunch and a train ride I set off from Salisbury station, riding alongside the Avon to Wilton before turning off onto the A30, which I would follow all the way to Crewkerne. The sun was out (more out than I realised - must remember sun screen next time), the roads were fairly quiet and the Wiltshire scenery rolled by, dipping down to a small village every few miles, before a few sharp bends and climbing back up to the chalk downs. There are four main towns on the route, which I had mistakenly remembered as being roughly evenly spaced. They are not: Shaftesbury seemed to take forever to arrive, and when it did, I was relieved to find a bakery still open, which provided the first cake stop.

Leaving Shaftesbury, all that height gain from Salisbury is wiped out almost immediately with a steep descent, before returning to the pattern of drop into village, a few turns, then back up onto the hills.


Another longish stretch to Sherborne, then a detour from the A30 to avoid some dual carriageway. Most of the A30 so far has been single carriageway with double white lines, and traffic had been really well behaved, but it was still nice to get on to a much quieter road. Near Bradford Abbas, the road forks and I turned onto Underdown Hollow, which quickly lives up to its name as it dives steeply between ochre-coloured cliffs under trees so dense that traffic coming the other way has its lights on. Back onto the A30, and I'm in Yeovil: meh.

A long climb up towards West Coker, with another cake stop at the top, then on towards Crewkerne where I turned off the A30 on the Lyme Regis road. Although the scenery is beautiful all along this route, it really steps up a notch after Crewkerne. As the hills get steeper and higher the views get longer and somewhere near Lambert's Castle, I get my first glimpse of the sea.


Having rolled up and down - more up than down - the road finally flattened out for a couple of miles as it follows the ridge to the Axe valley. A quick jump onto the A35, then off onto the barely surfaced lane Woodbury Lane. Thankfully, it was all down hill. Onto the A358 and it really started to fell like I was almost there. By this time it was well past six in the evening, and the sun had swung round to give everything a warm glow. Past a field of neatly aligned cows, and over the tram line, and then there was one last sting in the tail, the campsite I was heading to was on top of Colyton Hill, starting from not much above sea level.

Here's the main part of the route; with the run to Woking, 95 miles 3000ft of climbing and four counties for the day.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/270678309

tl;dr

Not even as long as Greg's IMC bike leg, but I'm pleased with it. I think I got to enjoy the scenery a lot more and the legs were fine the next day.

Brilliant write-up.

My parents live in Colyton, so I've been tempted get some long-distance training in and try to do the whole distance one day in the summer.

How was the A 303, I would be tempted to take some quieter roads to the south.

menthel

A total of 110k yesterday, most of which was from Great Ormond Street to the Sanger Institiute joining in (and coaxing and directing) 20 mostly infrequent cyclists. It was actually a nice route out on NCN 1 and 61 along the Lea Valley. I don't know that part of the world at all but it wa actually rather nice and for sustrans paths they were mostly quite good. Once on road we found a couple of hills and lots of rolling, unfortunately all into a fairly good going headwind. It took quite some time with lots of cat herding on the way! Still, lovely pub in Much Hadham for a shandy and a packet of nuts (as close as I got to lunch) and managed to subsist on a diet of my turbo flapjacks, some brownies and shot blox. Was rather fun!

cyclingprop

A mate and I went for a pootle on Saturday. A proper no targets just ride thing. Neither of us fancied hills or busy so we elected to use the Thames Path, heading East from Greenwich and took a cake stop when we got to Erith. Not much to report really other than:

1) It was pancake flat, but I suppose riding along a river does that for you.



2) The Thames Path is not all surfaced - there were some light gravel sections. This was insanely fun on 23c tyres at 27mph+ (I'm serious, it were right ace).



3) Erith is a proper dive and I wouldn't recommend anyone go there ever.
4) The Anchor and Hope in Charlton (Anchor and Hope lane), was ACE. GREAT pints of Doom Bar with the most bizarre music playlist known to man and a quiet outside speaker. Proper good pub that.

Gallywomack

According to my F-i-L, Erith is home to an unaccountably posh yacht club, although I suspect this is in relation to the area rather than yacht clubs in general. I am also reliably informed that Erith marshes are home to some of the best (possibly only) cow-tipping in London.

Looks like a fun route, would there be any scope to follow the river much further? I planned a London-Whitstable ride a few months back and quite early on opted to go Pilgrim's Way/Mid kent rather than a more direct route along the Thames then through the medway towns. I figured my route was likely to be prettier and quieter, but the Thames route would probably be more interesting. Or perhaps, 'interesting'.

cyclingprop

It's actually all along NCN Route 1: http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/route-1

itboffin

Well that really was a master class in failure, despite all my prep ie route, clothes etc. I walk into the garage to discover my recently white spirit cleaned chain hanging from a hook not on the bike, no big deal but a delay, what I should have done at that point was gone back in and had another cuppa.

Bike suitably fettled and i'm away, as expected its bloody freezing and very very gusty, this i'd planned for. I get no more than 2 miles and i cant feel my fingers - shit, so i start to turn back from more gloves but remember Mark saying put some latex workshop gloves underneath which i did and it worked after a few mins.

So now to the fun bit, the first big climb is pewsey white horse heading south, the direction of this wind - fecking great, so i literally inched my way up this 1000ft hill and this is where the real fun starts, during my several changes of clothes this morning i foolishly put on a spesh summer base layer, which boast properties of keeping you cool in summer, i'd not noticed this until now - seems what it does is holds your sweat, now as i'm wrapped up like a xmas present i'd got quite a sweat on, even unzipping two of the jackets (yes two) i was wearing didnt stem the flow, needless to say the minute i crested the hill i hit the high exposed section of Salisbury plain headfirst into the wind.

Mother of god that was cold, so very very cold, the route from there is basically 15 miles directly south right across the empty exposed plain, this prospect did not fill me with joy but rules 5 & 9 were in play, I made it another 3-4 miles before I started feeling that sloppy foot feeling that comes with a broken or worn cleat, so i'm off the bike and staring at an almost new cleat, odd!?!

anyway I repeated this 3 times before I came across a puddle the size of the thames and actually to deep to cross on the bike, so i jump off take a snap and start pushing whilst walking along the "bank" then it hits me .....WTF my left crank arm has come loose and is almost at the last thread.

fortunately I had chosen to take a bigger saddle bag with a proper multi tool so i could at least hand tighten it and ride the 7 miles home.

initial plan 65, actual 18 = FAIL



I think today is the day I should start that rewiring of the electric's i've been meaning to do ....

veronese68

With pish poor planning, sloppy workmanship and silly incidents like that you really think you should be wiring?!? :shock: :P

itboffin

i foolish repaired the crank arm, changed my base layer and headed back out

well that didnt go at all well, i planned an 18 mile loop and by 8 the wind was so bad i bailed and headed home, another 12 miles in the bag but really what was the point.

now i have a filthy bike to clean AGAIN

rjsterry

Mattsaw wrote:

Brilliant write-up.

My parents live in Colyton, so I've been tempted get some long-distance training in and try to do the whole distance one day in the summer.

How was the A 303, I would be tempted to take some quieter roads to the south.

Sorry, only just spotted this. Thanks for the compliment.

I wouldn't say there's need for much training if you use the train to jump a section; I just relied on my commuting legs (30ish miles a day) and was fine. If you wanted to do the full distance by bike that might be more of a stretch, especially as it gets hillier the further west you go.

I avoided the A303 as the useful sections are virtually all fast dual carriageway, but the A30 is fine. Quiet enough that you can enjoy the scenery and direct enough for a long distance ride. It also passes plenty of sources of refreshment, which is useful if you don't want to lug it all with you. I did do the ride on a Sunday, so a weekday would probably be busier.

itboffin

You'd have to be insane to consider the A303 traffic on there is faster than the M1 or M25 as for the A30 i ride that on and off depending on how quickly I need to get to the inlaws, yesterday i rode two sections and feck me it was horrid, now i'm used to fast close passing traffic but that took the biscuit, if i'd stuck my elbow out i could have touched just about every car that passed.

And the road surface going into Salisbury is that medium stone onto tar covering, you dont want to do too many miles on that unless you have some MASSHOOF wide tyres.

that said if you choose to weave the side roads be prepared to be utterly broken, whilst the roads are general in very good condition they do roll and roll and roll

Kieran_Burns

First ride out of the year, a little late due to all the problems with the bikes. I kind of thought that maybe 40 or 50 miles would be nice, ended up a gnats whisker shy of 70.

That headwind was just brutal, and the next time I cheerfully tell myself "well, it's better on the way out than on the way back" I will hit myself. I did notice on the way back when I was cruising along at just under 20 there was no wind, which kind of explains why I having such a nightmare journey.

The comical thing was dropping in a Cat 5 climb which feels anything but one. It's very short but pretty damn steep, and I'd just turned around after something like 37 miles of headwind. I was running on fumes and while I made the steepest part, I had to stop and eat before completing it. Watching all the other cyclists whizzing down the hill having climbed it up the EASY way was a little galling mind. Moisty Lane, what a great name for a road.

I also completed it on the Felt (with the new wheels, which creaked and cracked like crazy!) and it was faultless. That is a nice bike to ride now, and while I got a puncture... which looked like a spear had gone through the tyre! it couldn't dampen my enthusiasm for a really very good ride

itboffin

70 miles and 7000ft picking my way through Hertfordshire and Essex worst gravel dirt and farm tracks on a full carbon road bike with 23c tyres, oh and a lap of the velodrome halfway for good measure.

I spent most of the day weaving and bouncing off pothole and rocks.

Mental!

Still it was good to end the day watching the PR in a packed beer garden in the sun.

itboffin

With a long weekend almost apon us I'm thinking a nice weekend ramping up the miles, something like

Fri, 45
Sat, 90
Sun, 150
Mon, whatever I can manage

Oh and food lots and lots of food

Kieran_Burns

Well, I'm up for a 92 mile loop which will take in the Tissington and High Peak trails (to Middleton Top) tomorrow. I'd like to get out again Sunday / Monday so might well pootle over to my Mums and take a long loop back. I think I'll get the Madone set up for the latter ride as it's not been out this year.

the_fuggler

I see Ed F is down here on holiday (Roseland) and he's laying waste to the local Strava segments...

Should keep the St Austell Wheelers busy for a while!